The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-10-24

Virginia POAClCS.
| A great deal hinges on the result OF the
election which is TO come of in Virginia
within few days A new Legislature is to
be elected with which viii rest the duty Of
| electing successor to Senator Riddleberger.
| The political division OF that body, after
March next, if the threatened objection
to seating Messrs Hearst, Turpie and
Faulkner is abandoned, or re-
results in nothing, will be: Republicans 80,
Democrats 81, and Mr.. RiddleDerger The
Virginia Senator is Republican, but his
votes have been so eccentric that ne is gen
orally classed by himself 1t win be seen
that the Senate is very close, and that the
election in Virginia may 90 a long way TO-
ward putting it into the control of the Dem
ocrats.
The chances for Democratic success are
good. The majority of the State Senators who
hold over are Democrats, so that the election
of eight or ten fewer new Democratic mem
bers is necessary to give majority than if
a full Senate were chosen at each election,
The party is united and hopeful, while their
opponents are distracted by quarrels
among their leaders
The weakness Of the position of the Vir-
ginia Democrats lies in the fact that in past
years they have allowed themselves to be
forced into adopting views on certain ques-
tons vital TO Virginia which were at first
distinctively Republican, and which they
fought when the Republicans advocated
them. The contemplating Riddleberger
bill, providing for a settlement of the State
debt, was Republican measure. After it
became law it was doubtless the duty of
whatever administration was in power to
enforce it, but the Democrats have aban-
doned the position they once occupied that
a settlement more favorable to credi-
tors would be just, and now in
sist that the Riddleberger bill is the best
the State can do or ought to do. The party
has insisted on this strenuously, and the
Attorney General was recently sent to Jail
by a United States Judge because he was
endeavoring, in the face of an injunction,
to enforce a law which is a later develop
ment of the Riddleberger bill.
In the matter of Federal taxation, also,
the Virginia Democrats have abandoned the
position of their party to adopt that of their
tariff so-called and the abolition of the in
ternal revenue. This is probably the
result of the election of a majority of Re
publican Congressman last year, and indi
Gates an anxiety to get on the popular side
rather than to uphold certain principles of
government as just and right.
1t will be seen that on the two great ques
tions which interest Virginia most the Re
publicans have led and the Democrats fol-
lowed. The result is that many voters will
naturally look to the holder party to meet
the crisis in the States financial affairs
brought about by the action of the United
States courts. The Democrats have shown
a lack of craftsmanship and courage
In spite of this they deserve to succeed,
and we believe they will Not only are the
political accidents of unanimity in their own
ranks and dissension in those of their oppo-
nents in their favor, but every man who
calmly examines the situation must see that
they represent in a larger degree the intelli-
gence, property and good intention of the
State.
The issue between the parties has been re-
duced largely to a matter of men, and
in comparison Of this sort the Dem
ocrats have all the advantage If
they have no leaders who stand pre-
eminently above the crowd, yet the crowd
is thoroughly respectable. On the other
hand, the Republican party is Malone and
Riddleberger, the first raised to a bad
eminence which none can envy by corrupt
political methods, and the second famous
in State politics only as the author of law
which has caused endless trouble, and in the
Federal Senate for eccentricities of conduct
which sometimes seemed to indicate lunacy
In the trial of the issue bet ween these men
and the Democrats Virginia people ought
not to hesitate over their verdict